Captivating Couples 2012

This year, we celebrate couples who have taken the plunge and tied the knot—legally. Hailing from the tri-state area and beyond, measuring the length of their relationships in months as well as decades, they embody what courage, commitment and love are all about.

“Sarah and I met in the mid-90s. Our two circles of friends were intersecting on a regular basis at Henrietta Hudson, eventually creating one giant circle. The only problem was that Sarah and I didn’t like each other,” Kristen laughs, remembering that she thought her future wife was noisy and brash, while Sarah viewed Kristen as nerdy. After that inauspicious start, the two lost touch until 2005, when they reconnected at a friend’s party. “It was love at first sight. I was ready to rent a U-Haul!” Kristen says, but Sarah’s slow-and-steady attitude won out. They eventually moved in together and after several heartbreakingly unsuccessful attempts to start a family, both Kristen and Sarah got pregnant on the same day—an incredible coincidence chronicled in their book, Times Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made. Daughter Kate and son Thomas were born three weeks apart in February 2009. “We decided to get married [last year] because our children have two parents who are in love with each other. We wanted them to, at least technically, be on the same playing field as every other child from married heterosexual families,” they say. “We happen to be tax paying citizens who deserve the same rights as everyone else.”